Quick Quotes: Men’s Basketball Previewing Penn State
12/6/2019 3:24:26 PM | Men's Basketball
Chris Holtman, Head Coach
On going up against Penn State:
This is a really, really good Penn State team. I think that’s obvious to anyone who’s watched them. They’re certainly playing as well as any team we’ve played all year, and I think they’re a bonaifde NCAA tournament team and top-25 team. They’re really tough, really well-coached.
They’ve got a real team toughness, real togetherness about them. I think they’re a really, really good team. Tough, well-coached, come at you aggressive. I think everyone new coming into the season they were projected to be a really good team, and that’s what they are.
League opponents know you better than anybody. It’s like playing your brother in the backyard. There’s a different understanding of you, your personnel, and how you do things. I think our guys understand that.
On Lamar Stephens:
He’s tremendous. When you talk to other coaches, they talk about the mismatch issue that he is and really has been. He’s certainly one of the hardest matchups in the entire country. No question. He seems as motivated as he’s ever been.
On beating UNC:
Had we had some separation maybe between the games, I think it would’ve given us more time to maybe embrace what happened. The players are the ones that earned it, and I really wanted them to enjoy it that night and to enjoy their hard work. As a coach, what you’re trying to do is really move you and your staff’s mindset to what’s coming in less than 72 hours, and that’s a really good opponent that we’re going to have to play as well as we’ve played anybody all year.
Andre Wesson, Forward
On defending Cole Anthony:
Just being a competitor, you always just want to play your best against the best. He’s projected to be the best. I mean he’s a good player…so it was fun.
On Penn State:
They’re a very good team. They’ve got one loss and in that loss they were up 18 with seven minutes left, so that’s a game they should have won. They should be undefeated. They’re real physical. Since I’ve been here, every time we play them it has gone down to the wire.
On beating UNC:
Anytime you get a top-10 victory and the way that we did it, you definitely feel good about yourself, but as a team we know that we have goals, big goals. That’s just a stepping stone to the goal we’ve got to get to.
Kyle Young, Forward
On North Carolina’s physical play:
Those are the games we like to play in. I think a lot of us compete at our highest level. Those physical games are going to get us ready for Big Ten games, so we’re going to be going into this Penn State game with that same mentality.
On not getting complacent:
I think it’s easy to get complacent when you have some big victories and stuff like that, but that’s something that the coaching staff has been preaching to us. Us as a team understands that we need to come to work everyday ready to work, because anything can happen on any given night.
